Radiation barrier apparatus



April 19, 1966 G. R. HARTING 3,246,438

RADIATION BARRIER APPARATUS A Filed Deo. 3l, 1962 @WM-wm United States Patent O 3,246,438 RADIATION BARRIER APPARATUS Glen R. Harting, Rockford, Ill., assigner to Borg-Warner Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Dec. 31, 1962, Ser. No. 248,345 '1 Claim.; (Cl. 52-404) This invention relates to protecting devices against the effects of radio-active bombs, radio-active materials, and

lthe like, and has for its primary object to provide an improved construction which is adaptablelto presently-in stalled, residential or commercial buildings while affording a combined protection against harmful rays as well as heat and high temperatures.

Another object of this invention is to provide an economical and simple device which may be installed by non-skilled homeowners to achieve a reliable protective barrier against the harmful effects of injurious rays such as those emitted from an atomic bomb blast.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a device which is adapted to cooperate with present standard home construction and which may be unitized in multiples thereof according to the area and size of the space to be protected, the device being particularly light in weight and, in one aspect of this invention, requires no additional room space than that which is ordinarily designed for occupation.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a radiation barrier device adapted to cooperate with currently installed home constructions which not only affords the advantages of radiation protection, but which is also adaptable to wall or ceiling installations and which provides domestic advantages such as sound retardation between occupied spaces and a thermal barrier for normal domestic heating purposes, etc.

Other and more particular objects, uses, and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon the reading of the following specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which form a part thereof, where FIGURE 1 is a sectional elevational view of a portion of conventional home construction and illustrates the manner in which this invention may be used;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the barrier construction of this invention and is taken substantially along lines 2 2 of FIGURE l; and

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional View like that of FIGURE 2 and illustrates another embodiment of this invention.

Referring now to the drawings, more in detail by characters of reference, the numeral indicates a portion of a subterranean wall which has a conventional home monolithic concrete basement wall, having one side exposed to the outside terrain 11 and an inside surface which is exposed to living space'therein. In most home constructions, wooden joists span the distance between the top portions of the concrete construction and are normally spaced apart 16 inches between centers of each. Spanning the oor joists may be a conventional construction consisting of a sub-floor 12 having wood strips laid thereacross in tight adjacent fitting relationship and a finished wood flooring 13 laid directly thereover.

It is contemplated by this invention to employ the spaces existing between the floor joists and, in another embodiment thereof, also the layer of space directly beneath the joists for purposes of providing a radiation barrier construction. Since the mass of the radiation barrier contemplated herein is a heavy, dense material, it is recommended that additional joists for structural members 14 be placed in the same fashion as the existing joist so as to separate the space between the joists into two separate 3,246,438 `Patented Apr. 19, 1966 chambers, the structural elements then having a spacing of Aapproximately 8 inches on centers.- Metallic sheet metall strips 15 are placed along the longitudinal bottom margin of the sides of each joist and secured thereto by fasteners 16 such as common carpentry nails. AEach mounting strip has an inner lip 17 which is bent out slightly from the side of each joist but retains a direction disposed toward the sub-floor 12.

Retainer means 1S consists of sheet metal and is formed to span the distance between the mounting brackets of adjacent joists as wellas provide additional chamber space enclosed therein along with the chamber space between joists; each kretainer is formed with a mounting ange 19 .having a portion 19a disposed adjacent the side of the strip 15 and has a return-bent lip 19b adapted to coopcrate with portion 19a to envelop the lip 17 of the mounting strips. The sidevportion 20 of each retainer is adapted to conform to the contour of the bottom of each joist and extend downwardly from a central plane of the joist to mate with a bottom portion 21 of the retainer spaced below the plane of the bottom of -thejoist approximately 4 inches.

In new house constructions, radiation barrier materials, such as sand 22, may be dropped into the chambers between the joists before the sub-floor is laid; or, in existing constructions, sand may be inserted or introduced into the chamber between joists by means such as a sand slinging operation through slots 24 (as shown in FIGURE l) in a manner so that the sand fills all the voids of the chambers therebetween.

The bottom portion 21 of each of the retainer means are adapted to lie in a plane so as to automatically form a metallic finished ceiling for the living space therebeneath. The metallic nature of the retainer means provides for a slight amount of resiliency so thatshock waves experienced during an explosion will not cause cracks or fissures in the barrier construction.

Rays emitted from an atomic blast will normally be entering the housing construction at an angle with respect to a horizontal plane thereof. Thus, the wood joist, forming a relatively good ray protection in itself, will not necessarily form a free passage in comparison to the sand material for rays to reach the occupied space. Rays will at some portion of their travel have to pass through the sand material because of their angular path. Other barrier materials may be used within the chamber such as pulverized oxides that are denser than sand and may therefore exhibit a higher increment in radiation protection. However, for economical home construction, the density of sand and the joists together form adequate radition protection barriers for normal purposes. The granular nature of the material, however, aids in the manner of introduction of the material to the chambers in existing constructions when an entrance consists of a slot only.

FIGURE 3 illustrates still another embodiment of this invention and similar reference characters are used for parts similar to those in FIGURE 1, prefixed by 2. In this embodiment, the supporting strips 219 are formed in pairs and each comprises a U-shaped mounting bracket adapted tofiit about the full end of each joist and having outwardly turned lips at the ends of eachU-shaped portion. Such variation permits the installation of several more mounting strips with the same manual operation and provides for quicker installation. The retainer means 218 are adapted to have their bottom portions 221 lie in a plane common with the bottom of each joist so that the actual barrier chamber will have an approximate depth equal to that of the depth of each joist. Thus, the barrier construction can be wholly contained within the space normally unused between the joist and therefore will not interrupt the'lcohstr'uction or remodeling of space below such oist 'const'ructior'i'.

What is claimed is: y

vA radiation .barrier construction for a domestic dwelling having regularly spaced elongated wooden floor joists and a wooden Asubiioor placed thereover, each joist having a lvertical dimension greater than the lateral vspacing' between said joists, said construction comprising: sheet metal mounting srtipsA secured to and along the elongated lower margins of each joist and arranged for one mounting strip on each ljoist to be oppositely facing one mounting strip on an adjacent ljoist, each mounting strip having a rst elongated part extending along the said margin of each joist and secured thereto Hush against the element and a second part comprised of an outwardly biased elongated lip, said lip being adapted to flex in a direction toward said supporting joist; retainer means comprising an elongated sheet metal channel adapted to extend between oppositely facing mounting strips to de- .ne a closed chamber in cooperation with the adjacent joist and said subfloor, said retainer means depending from the said joists and adapted to abut adjacent retainer References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 324,716 8/1885 Mauver 50-396 2,015,568 9/1935 McClintock 20-6 2,335,220 ll/l943 Edwards 20--4 2,490,663 12/1949 Van Uum et al. 189--88 2,706,315 4/1955 Price 189-88 X 2,888,870 6/1959 Drager 109--1 OTHER REFERENCES House & Garden, vol. 81, page 22, published February 1942.

Fallout Protection, published December 1961 by Dept. of Defense, page 21.

HARRISON R; MOSELEY, Primary Examiner. 

